Various charger circuits and techniques for charging and recharging secondary cells are known. In one such technique, the cell voltage is monitored and a charge current supplied to the cell is reduced as the cell voltage increases. This technique is based on a recognition that, as the voltage across the cell increases, its charge acceptance decreases. Other battery charging techniques utilize circuitry for sensing the charge accepted by the cell and reducing the charge current supplied to the cell as the accepted charge decreases. In still another battery charging technique, a constant current is supplied to the cell during a first charging interval and a constant voltage is provided to the cell during a second charging interval. The first and second intervals may have predetermined durations or alternatively, may be a function of a battery condition, such as the cell voltage.
As is apparent, many battery charging techniques require measurement of the voltage across the rechargeable cell. Another reason for measuring the cell voltage is to prevent cell damage due to an overvoltage or undervoltage condition. More particularly, certain types of non-aqueous electrolyte battery cells, such as lithium ion cells, are susceptible to damage if charged to too high a voltage or permitted to be discharged to too low a voltage.
Secondary cells are often connected in series to power a load, since the total voltage across the string of series-connected cells is approximately equal to the sum of the voltages across each individual cell. One way to measure the individual cell voltages in a string of series-connected cells is to measure the total voltage across the string of cells and divide the measured voltage by the number of cells. However, this technique provides only a rough approximation of the individual cell voltage since typically, the voltage across each cell varies somewhat.
Another technique for measuring the voltage across individual series-connected cells is to provide a sensing circuit for each such cell and average the outputs of the sensing circuits. For example, a plurality of differential amplifiers may be provided, with input terminals of each amplifier coupled across a respective cell and the output signals of the amplifiers averaged. However, since such a measurement is of the average cell voltage, when using the measurement to control cell charging, some cells will be overcharged and others will be undercharged in accordance with the deviation between their respective voltage and the average measured voltage. Moreover, use of plural sensing circuits results in disadvantageous component duplication and concomitant increases in manufacturing time and cost.
Multiplexing is another technique used to sense the voltage across individual cells of a series-connected string of cells. Such an arrangement utilizes a single voltage sensing circuit having input terminals which are selectively connected across each of the cells. However, this technique suffers from the drawbacks that, at any given time, the measured voltage corresponds to the voltage of only a single cell, and increased circuit complexity is typically associate with multiplexing.